10 THE CAAR COMMUNICATOR According to new labour market data plumbed from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), the agricltural workforce in Canada consisted of 420,000 people in 2022— a number that includes all farm businesses, support services, and agricultural wholesalers. Of that number, 17 percent of the labour force consisted of foreign workers, including workers from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program. According to the CAHRC report entitled “Sowing Seeds of Change,” that’s an increase of more than 30 percent since 2017. For a more detailed look at the report, see page 25. For CAAR members, the data means we have to learn to be more creative. Perhaps it is time to focus on those skilled team members who, for a variety of reasons, might have amicably left the workforce but are now looking to return with your company as an option. Many companies have employee return programs that are set in place to help skilled professionals re-enter the workforce after a career break. Most employees looking to relaunch their careers typically return to the same or similar role as the one they left, or they may have very strong transferable skills that could be applied to a new field. There are ways to attract and hire employees who haven’t worked in a few years but who are highly skilled and experienced. Here are four of them. 1. Offer a Flexible Workplace Who would ever believe that the pandemic did something good? The global COVID-19 spread resolved a problem that kept returning professionals out of the workforce. Many people couldn’t have a full-time job because they needed more flexibility. However, more people can nowadays realistically consider returning to work in a full-time capacity because companies are offering more flexible working arrangements—something unheard of in the preCOVID era. Perhaps taking its cue from kids who did their learning remotely, working virtually from home has been ideal for many returning candidates. The virtual return offered a more gentle transition back into the workforce for people, especially for those who have children or aging parents that they need to care for. By allowing candidates to work remotely (at least part of the time), it becomes a large selling point. HUMAN RESOURCES Keepin’ it real Some advice on how the ag community can maintain its workforce in good stead. By Ainsley Andres celiaosk/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
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